What If We Devoured One Another?

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2019, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Dock 11, Berlin 2019, HOME-MADE “MoVe”, Performance/Festival – Contemporary Dance Makers from Greece, Curator: Giannis Antoniou.

“What does your mirror say?
 It is always the other who looks back from within. It is this other that we seek when we dig into foreign bodies, beyond ourselves. There may be neither the one nor the other—only the nothingness within our soul, croaking for food”.
—Heiner Müller.
“At the moment when the image of the other comes for the first time to seduce me, I am no different from the marvelous Duck of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher”.
—Roland Barthes.
How could Heiner Müller’s fiercely powerful and corrosive “Quartet”, Roland Barthes’s uniquely semiotic “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments,” the gripping and intensely erotic–orgasmic music of Wagner from “Tristan und Isolde”—one of the most erotic works ever composed—the poem “Carnal Word” by Yiannis Ritsos, and texts referring to everyday scenes of a couple, inspired primarily by the choreographer’s personal experiences yet simultaneously addressing the pathologies of Western modern society, be combined? How can Amalgama Space at 47 Menandrou Street be transformed—without any theatrical set, but by using the architectural and semiotic elements of the space itself, or even its simple objects (such as the audience’s chairs)—into the various visual worlds of the work: a Courtroom, a Ship, a Brothel (with male prostitutes), a Home, and other spaces? The physiology and psychology of Love; the battle of the sexes; the greed of the egocentrically nourished individual (a product of neoliberal society as well as of their relationship with the mother-provider, etc.), who consciously or unconsciously constantly seeks to dominate, subjugate, and control their erotic object; the perpetrator–victim relationship; the dependent relationship, which is nothing but the product of the individual’s archaic bonds; the impasse of relationships; Love as a form of hypnosis; and, on the other hand, passion and the romantic perception of Love that persists in the West even in the age of modernity—all of the above coexist within the same dramaturgical canvas of the work. Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” (one of the most important representatives of Romanticism) has been chosen as one of the most erotic works in the history of Western music. Specific passages and arias run throughout the performance, among them “the Prelude” and “the Liebestod”, performed live by soprano Nancy Papakonstantinou. Concept / Idea / Choreography / Direction / Set Design / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, Primary Texts: “Quartet” by Heiner Müller; “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments” by Roland Barthes, Poem: “Carnal Word ” by Yiannis Ritsos, Additional Texts: Maria Gorgia, Music: Selected excerpts from “Tristan und Isolde” by Richard Wagner, Operatic Voice: Nancy Papakonstantinou, Performers: Markella Manoliadi, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Nancy Papakonstantinou, Giannis Stavropoulos, Maria Gorgia, Spoken Text Acting: Angeliki Karystinou
, Set & Costumes: Maria Alektoridou, Dramaturgy Consultant: Miranda Vatikyoti
, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Giorgis Noukakis, Vangelis Angelakis, Elena Kanaki, Giorgos Marinakis.